Greek alphabet

American  

noun

1. the alphabetic script derived from a Semitic alphabet by way of the Phoenicians, used from about the 8th century b.c. for the writing of Greek, and forming the basis of many other scripts, including Latin and Cyrillic. The letters of the Greek alphabet are: alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega.

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Etymology

Origin of Greek alphabet

First recorded in 1730–40

Example Sentences

Its name comes from the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet, which means that pi also has its own symbol – 𝜋.

From NewsForKids.net • Mar. 14, 2024

Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, was chosen for the project’s name to imply “the last word” in stylish design.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2023

When variants of the virus mutated and evolved into new strains with significant advantages over old lineages, the WHO began giving these "variants of concern" names from the Greek alphabet.

From Salon • Apr. 13, 2023

During the Covid pandemic, it recommended that variants were referred to using letters of the Greek alphabet because they were "non-stigmatising" and easy to pronounce.

From BBC • Nov. 28, 2022

Sigma is one of the letters of the Greek alphabet which is used frequently in mathematics to indicate the sum of various parts.

From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins